Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Magnetic bottle opener



Goes to show that useful gadgets need not be
high-tech. This household item of a bottle opener
is surely a winner - no maintenance needed. It's
made of stainless steel with a non-scratch magnetic back.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

A Good reason to Retire Early

Found this enlightening article on correlation between
life span and age at retirement.

Table 1 – Actuarial Study of life span vs. age at retirement

Retire at 49.9 and die at 86
Retire at 51.2 and die at 85.3
Retire at 52.5 and die at 84.6
Retire at 53.8 and die at 83.9
Retire at 55.1 and die at 83.2
Retire at 56.4 and die at 82.5
Retire at 57.2 and die at 81.4
Retire at 58.3 and die at 80
Retire at 59.2 and die at 78.5
Retire at 60.1 and die at 76.8
Retire at 61 and die at 74.5
Retire at 62.1 and die at 71.8
Retire at 63.1 and die at 69.3
Retire at 64.1 and die at 67.9
Retire at 65.2 and die at 66.8

Article source: http://michael75.blogspot.com/2005/05/good-reason-to-retire-early.html

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

The 11-Year-Old Wife

It's bad enough being raped, let alone being gang-raped,
victims in Pakistan were even subjected to being put into
psychiatric hospitals, held under house-arrest and
threatened with death by their own family. Article below
from the NY Times has the details.

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
of New York Times
Published: June 21, 2005

When Pakistan's prime minister visits next month, President
Bush will presumably use the occasion to repeat his praise for
President Pervez Musharraf as a bold leader "dedicated in the
protection of his own people." Then they will sit down and
discuss Mr. Bush's plan to sell Pakistan F-16 fighter jets
capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

But here's a suggestion: How about the White House dropping
word that before the prime minister arrives, he first return
the passport of Mukhtaran Bibi, the rape victim turned human-
rights campaigner,
so that she can visit the United States?

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Influential Philippine church leader Cardinal Jaime Sin dies


MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Roman Catholic Cardinal Jaime Sin,
the Philippines' moral compass and a key figure in the
"people power'' revolts that ousted two presidents, died
Tuesday. He was 76.

Monday, June 13, 2005

Debt-free

In a perfect world, there are no debts - no borrowing,
no need for debt management nor debt recovery nor debt
consolidation nor anything relating to debt. Yeap,
absolutely no talk of debts. But that's the perfect
world, right?

Isn't it nice if all our debts can be written off like
what the G8 countries agree to do as stated in the
news article below. The following appeared in The
Sunday Star paper:

G8 countries agree to write off debt
LONDON: Finance ministers from the globe's richest
countries agreed Saturday on a historic deal to cancel
US$40bil (RM15.2bil) worth of debt owed by the world's
poorest nations.

Britain's Treasury chief Gordon Brown said 18 countries,
many in sub-Saharan Africa, would benefit immediately from
the deal to scrap 100% of the debt they owe to the World
Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the African
Development Bank. Up to 20 other countries could be
eligible if they meet targets for good governance and
tackling corruption, leading eventually to a total debt
relief package of more than US$55bil (RM209bil).

"The G8 finance ministers have agreed 100% debt cancellation
for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries," Brown told a news
conference in London.

"We are presenting the most comprehensive statement that
finance ministers have ever made on the issues of debt,
development, health and poverty," said Brown. - AP

There you have it... but dream on........

Thursday, June 9, 2005

Fraser's Hill misadventure

Glad to know that the boys who were missing on Fraser's Hill
have been found. I remember an incident from schooldays when
on a school excursion to the waterfall at Gunung Ledang, we
were all lost and it was raining and we were wet even with
raincoats and umbrellas. We arrived early by bus and went
round and round in the rubber estate. We simply couldn't
reach the waterfall even though the whistling of the water
was so clear. A guide was unheard of those days.

Tired, lost and hungry we decided to have our breakfast.
Luckily we found the waterfall. Strange, we didn't think
about offloading our bladder because not sure whether it's
true, there's a belief that when one is lost in a jungle,
one just has to lighten the bladder and one could get back
on track.

I haven't been back there since. Heard it's been developed
into a holiday destination.

Wednesday, June 8, 2005

Genting Highlands First World Hotel


First World Hotel

Can you imagine paying one ringgit for a night stay in
a hotel? That's right. One ringgit only.

That's what I heard over the radio this morning and I called
to check it out. The reservations personnel confirmed it.
The hotel is the First World Hotel in Genting Highlands.
The catch is: it's through a voucher system and one has to
purchase it personally in Genting Highlands. Maximum number
of vouchers per person is two. Validity is for June 11 and 12.

So, if you would like to visit Genting Highlands, this weekend
would be a good time.

Check out Genting Highlands..

Check out First World Hotel...

Monday, June 6, 2005

Life is so fragile

Over the week-end, a friend's sister-in-law's brother
passed away in Papua New Guinea. He was working there.
The saddest part is that he had no family member with him
during his passing and no one at home knew what really
happened. His wife of twelve years and two young children,
his parents and siblings are here in Malaysia. Even as we
speak, two of his siblings are on their way to Papua New
Guinea to make arrangements for his body to be flown back
to East Malaysia.

My heart goes out to his family.

Friday, June 3, 2005

The Ice Hotel in Sweden

TGIF! I don't know about you but I always look forward to the
weekend. Never mind the cleaning chores, never mind the various
other household chores, it is so nice to be able to sneak in
some me-time. Strange how during the weekends my eyes would
simply refuse to stay open in the afternoons. Luckily, that's
not the case at work during the weekdays. I love the TV so
weekends would be late nights just catching up on shows or
documentaries. Talk about documentaries, I recently saw one on
icebergs. Did you know that 85% of an iceberg is out of view
under the water? No wonder they say 'tip of the iceberg' when
referring to a small part of something largely hidden.

I have somewhere filed an image of a beautiful iceberg but unable
to locate it just when I need it so as a substitute - still on
something icy - why not visit the Ice Hotel in Sweden.